# Aurinko Email API vs Zoho Mail API

> Zoho Mail scores 53.8 (D) to Aurinko Email's 44.2 (E) for mailbox access. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aurinko-email-vs-zoho-mail
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- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Zoho Mail API scores 53.8 (D) on agent readiness against Aurinko Email API's 44.2 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Aurinko Email API leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing. Both do mailbox access.

- Aurinko Email API: grade E, 44.2/100, rank #878 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aurinko-email.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/aurinko-email.json
- Zoho Mail API: grade D, 53.8/100, rank #702 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zoho-mail.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zoho-mail.json
- Best mailbox access APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/mailbox-access/index.md
- All 36 mailboxes comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mailbox-access/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Aurinko Email API (E)

Good for: A product that connects many users' Gmail and Microsoft mailboxes and wants one schema, delta sync, tracking and webhooks at a low price per account.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 67 against 45
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: No status page, incident history or SLA found, and the terms supply the service as is

### Zoho Mail API (D)

Good for: An agent working inside its owner's Zoho Mail mailbox or administering a Zoho Mail organisation, where narrow scopes and the MCP server keep access small.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 63 against 40
- Agent ergonomics, 56 against 49
- Security & auth, 67 against 42
- Maintenance & community, 33 against 13
- Transparency & trust, 73 against 44

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: The Zoho Mail usage policy, updated 2 September 2026, lists automated, bulk and transactional emails among uses that are not allowed.


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Aurinko Email API | Zoho Mail API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 40 | 63 | Zoho Mail API +23 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 45 | Aurinko Email API +22 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 49 | 56 | Zoho Mail API +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 42 | 67 | Zoho Mail API +25 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 30 | Aurinko Email API +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 13 | 33 | Zoho Mail API +20 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 44 | 73 | Zoho Mail API +29 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **44.2 · E** | **53.8 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Aurinko Email API | Zoho Mail API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Yoxel, Inc. | Zoho |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.aurinko.io` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Yoxel's Terms of Services Agreement | Proprietary service under the Zoho Terms of Service and the Zoho Mail usage policy. No source repository was found |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Terms last updated | 2022-08-11 | 2022-03-02 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2022-08-11 | 2025-12-22 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |

## Verdicts

**Aurinko Email API.** One REST interface covers message search with 17 query operators, drafts, sending, folders and delta sync across seven mailbox types, at $1.50 an active account a month and with send-only and read-only scopes. No status page, SLA, changelog, idempotency key on send or official SDK was found, and SOC 2 is not yet held.

**Zoho Mail API.** A REST API over a Zoho Mail mailbox with OAuth scopes that narrow to one resource and one operation, plus an MCP server launched in 2026. Zoho publishes no OpenAPI file, SDK, request rate limit or API changelog, and its usage policy bars automated email.

## Before you call either

### Aurinko Email API

1. Use `https://api.aurinko.io/v1`. Several cURL examples in the docs print `https:/api.aurinko.io` with one slash, and one search example names the host `asti.aurinko.io`
2. Do not retry `POST /v1/email/messages` blindly after a timeout. There is no idempotency key, so check Sent mail with `q=rfc822msgid:` or by subject first
3. Call `POST /v1/email/sync` until `ready` is true, then page `/v1/email/sync/updated` with `pageToken` until a `nextDeltaToken` appears and store it
4. Check the `omitted` array on message lists. Full bodies come only from Google and Office 365, and other providers return a snippet
5. Request `Mail.Read` plus `Mail.Send` for read and send without modify rights. The docs example names `Mail.ReadOnly`, which is not in the scope list

### Zoho Mail API

1. Send `Authorization: Zoho-oauthtoken <token>`, not `Bearer`. The token response says `Bearer`, but the OAuth guide says the Mail API requires the Zoho prefix.
2. Use the host for the account's data centre, such as `mail.zoho.eu` or `mail.zoho.in`. Call `GET /api/accounts` first for the `accountId` every mailbox call needs.
3. Reading a message body needs both `folderId` and `messageId`. List and search calls return a summary only, 10 messages by default and 200 at most.
4. Request `ZohoMail.messages.READ` alone for a reading agent. Add `CREATE` only when it must send, and leave `DELETE` out unless required.
5. Refresh the access token every hour, and post OAuth parameters in the request body where the server accepts it, to keep secrets out of URLs.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Aurinko Email API or Zoho Mail API?

Zoho Mail API scores 53.8 (D) on agent readiness against Aurinko Email API's 44.2 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Aurinko Email API leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing.

### Do Aurinko Email API and Zoho Mail API need an API key?

Both use an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Aurinko Email API and Zoho Mail API without installing anything?

Aurinko Email API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.aurinko.io. No hosted endpoint is listed for Zoho Mail API.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aurinko-email-vs-zoho-mail.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aurinko-email-vs-zoho-mail.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "aurinko-email", "b": "zoho-mail"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare aurinko-email zoho-mail`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/aurinko-email.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zoho-mail.json

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